Down by the Water
by jay8008
Summary: To save entire civilizations, how far will Liara descend into darkness? If she had known the answer on the beginning of this journey, perhaps she would never have started. - A standalone excerpt from my larger story, Control That Which You Cannot Destroy.
1. Down by the Water

Matriarch Livia N'Sen reclined at the edge of the slow and serene river, as the setting star Tasale warmed her with its fading rays despite the cool evening wind. Taking a leisurely sip from her wineglass , she rolled the fluid over her tongue before leaning over to plant the base of the glass into the warm sand. Her luxurious private cabin at the edge of the forest behind her beckoned with the promise of a final restful sleep before she would make her return to Thessia. Owning property this remote, in this region of Ilium was incredibly expensive, but eight hundred years of connections and sound investments made such things trivial. If one wanted absolute privacy, she accepted that one must pay for it.

"Matriarch Livia."

With a jolt, the elder asari jumped to her feet and wheeled on the intruder, biotics flaring to life. There was a young asari maiden in a casual white courier uniform, a small vest over a simple shirt, and shorts that ended just above the knee. Her shapely legs were bare, as were her feet, and beyond her Livia saw her removed sandals on the walkway. She displayed the laughable nod to recent human influence, tattooed false eyebrows the young ones often bore these days.

"This is private property. Explain yourself, child.", she declared angrily.

"I apologize for my rudeness. I assure you it is borne from urgency alone, and once I take a bit of your time, I shall be on my way. The information I offer may, in fact, save your own life as well as many others. Perhaps you'd like to dress before we converse." The young asari cast her eyes down in utmost politeness.

N'Sen glanced down at her own nudity for but a moment before taking up her white silky robe and putting it on, knotting it tightly at the waist in irritation. "How did you find me? Nobody knows I come here, my ownership of this estate is a secret I paid dearly for."

"And it is beautiful here." The young maiden cast her eyes across the wide, slow river; into the colors of the setting sun. "You must be cautious. In this region, at this time of year, there is a gelatinous sea-life active here with a paralytic toxin..."

"Child, I have owned this property for eighty years, I'm well aware of the local points of interest. Get on with it."

The younger asari bowed slightly. "As I said, the urgency is high, so no expense was spared in undoing your privacy in this matter, I must confess. I wish only to provide information to you, if you would be so kind as to accept it. Very soon you are delivering the results of your private think-tank inquiry to the Asari Republic as your recommendation."

"I am. And they will listen, for my interest group is significant in influence." Matriarch N'Sen's chin lifted as she spoke, to peer down her nose at the maiden; she was well used to being treated with deference.

"Indeed, I would agree. It will be your recommendation, in regards to the theory of the extinction of the protheans being caused by an intelligent, synthetic starships known as the Reapers is a falsity. Any investments, research, and preparations for the arrival of such a hypothetical invasion force is a waste of all resources." The young asari's eyes were still downcast demurely.

"How did you...? Yes, of course. Supernatural space monsters are not the way of things, let's not be ridiculous. Is this really what you've come to discuss?"

"What I have here..." the young asari held up her datapad "is my combined collections of my own work, as well as evidence gained firsthand in the field with one Commander Shepard even as we speak, condensed by one Mordin Solis; older data acquired or stolen from sources as diverse as the STG, Cerberus, and Alliance Intell..."

Livia's eyes narrowed. "Doctor. Liara. T'Soni. I thought you looked familiar. Are you still going on in your pathetic campaign to clear your mother's name? She was a traitor to our people, and a pureblood breeder while she was at it. Producing a shameful little embarrassment such as yourself to salt the wounds her actions caused us all."

Her demure act cast aside, Liara's eyes came up and met evenly with Matriarch Livia's. "You have interests in many corporations that deal in primarily high-wealth and luxury demographics. One could argue that even the slightest shift in spending towards a war economy would be detrimental to your bottom line. It would be profitable for you to dismiss the existence of the Reapers in favor of supporting the Council line of strictly geth-related enemy forces in cooperation with the leadership of Saren, the Citadel attack, and vanishing colonies. Every month of denials can potentially add millions of credits into your accounts."

"Go back to your hole, _pureblood_. Or you'll die here and be fed to the local animals."

"My research is real. At the risk of sounding immodest, this information in this datapad...may in fact be the most important single collection of knowledge in existence at this very moment. We stand on the cusp of losing entire civilizations. I will accept your insults if it will contribute to saving our people. Will you even examine this? Will you consider the contents fairly?" Liara held out the datapad with her left hand, extended to the wealthy matriarch.

"I will not. I won't ask you again to leave." The matriarch's eyes glowed with biotic power, and she braced herself for the using of it.

Even as the young asari shook her head sadly, and pulled the datapad back to her chest, she stepped closer. "Very well. You are free to decide as you wish." Her eyes moved down to the base of the recliner in the sand. "You've spilled your wine."

Matriarch Livia's face pinched in confusion, and followed her eyes to her wine glass in the sand. It was still standing as before, vertical and partially full. Even as a spark of alarm surged through her, a sharp pain erupted in the side of her neck. She clapped her hand to the area, only to find her covering Liara's own, the end of a pen-like item being gripped there. _A syringe_, she thought, even as her body numbed and her knees gave way. Liara casually dropped the datapad, and gently lowered the Matriarch to the sand at the water's edge, her free hand holding her at the small of the back.

"Matriarch Livia..." Liara's voice had lost all sense of politeness or deference even as she cradled the matriarch's head genty. "You demanded that I explain myself, so I shall. I spoke truth when I said the information I brought today may save your life. You only needed to cease your self-interest and look upon it objectively. Unfortunately, you chose the path I expected of you. It would have been quite refreshing to see you choose to serve your people, rather then milk them of credits for your own gain, as you have for your entire life."

Livia's lips moved as she tried to speak, but no sound emerged other then shapeless breaths. "Don't bother. The paralysis is nearly instant." Liara held up the empty syringe in front of herself, as if admiring its qualities. The young maiden's eyes were almost sad, but contained no lack of resolve as she tucked the empty syringe back into a vest pocket. "Do you recall the toxin I mentioned, from the sea-life in this area? It is possible to acquire that same toxin if you know the right people, and are willing to look past such small barriers such as law and morality."

"Did you know, also, that on average, seventeen asari and nearly forty alien tourists perish annually from downing induced by paralysis in this same manner? Mostly the young, sadly, who ignore the posted public warnings and the like. Still, as humans would say, _accidents happen_. Especially, as the statistics indicate, when alcohol is involved." Liara picked up the nearly-full bottle of wine from the sand, and poured it into the river's edge. She watched it disperse into the pristine, slow-moving water.

"In three days, I will simulate a malfunction in your cabin's security system. When your security contractor responds, I'll leave just enough evidence that they'll know you were still here when you went missing, and I'm certain your body will be found. I will not leave your family without closure, do not be concerned of that."

Gently, Liara twisted her limp victim's head so that their eyes could meet. The smooth innocence of youth in her face contrasted her deadly, unemotional words."In a way, Livia, I've done you a tremendous kindness. I'm doing all I can to prepare us. Clearly, I'm willing to kill to save lives. I learned the sense of that paradox though Commander Shepard, you know. He has killed thousands to save uncounted millions, even as most of them will never know. It makes a perverse kind of absolute sense even as it weighs on him greatly." With clinical detachment, she undid the matriarch's robe before gathering her body up in her arms again.

"It pains me to say this, it honestly does, because I know it will never be enough. When the Reapers come, I expect planets to fall. I expect billions will die. I expect some civilizations to be either wiped away or to be so thoroughly decimated that they will cease to have a functional culture. You will be spared the sight of these times to come. If you're asking yourself why I have done this personally, I admit it is a task I normally assign to one of my wet teams. However, it is a coward who would only ask of others what they cannot do themselves, don't you agree?"

With surprising strength, the information broker stood, lifting the nude matriarch in her arms and walking into the river until the cool water reached her calves. For a brief moment, a self-mocking smile touched Liara's lips. "I'm sure by now, you're willing to get this over with just to be free of my voice. I want to add one more thing, if you'll indulge me."

Liara knelt in just enough water that the matriarch was able to float limply. She leaned out over her, putting her face over and close to Livia's, and spoke in a hushed tone that was barely over a whisper.

"Your refusal to see the truth I freely offer, to save your own people? The hateful, bigoted words you used against me? I have to thank you. I've been planning your death for several weeks, it has been...stressful for me. I've killed many times, usually in the field of combat with my courageous, heroic, beautiful friends from the _Normandy_. I doubt you would understand what they mean to me. I witnessed things with them I cannot even describe with the emptiness of words."

"I could meld with you, I suppose, to show you the things I've shared with them, but that is precious to me and I would never honor one such as you with that greatest gift. It was difficult and terrifying at times, but emotionally it didn't bother me in the same way this has. I will be candid; I dreaded coming here, the guilt of an action I'd not even committed yet was heavy. But today, Matriarch Livia N'Sen? You've made it _so_ much easier."

Liara rolled the paralyzed elder asari over to be face-down in the water, and gently pushed her away from the shore.


	2. Fire and Rain

For the seventh time of the evening, Dr. Liara T'Soni brought up the wet sleeve of her raincoat and activated her omni-tool, reading the five-hour-old message.

_##_

_Will you be on Illium for the near future? I should have important information for you soon. Our elusive friend hinted it may be a 'final piece'. Perhaps you can help with this making sense to me, later._

_## Shepard_

Liara, for the seventh time, smiled very slightly. The content of the message, while intriguing, had in the end proved to be less interesting than the events it set in motion. Liara possessed an exceedingly advanced VI dedicated for a singular purpose - created just for her by a gifted friend, it could backtrace most packet sniffer applications that may have copied the message out. The trace, while it did not prove to be per-person specific, did lead to a particular apartment complex. One of Liara's employees _just so happened_ to reside there.

Armed with at the very least, a decent guess in regards to identity, Liara now could wager they may be concerned enough to act on this information this very evening. Act with deadly force. The situation was starting to have the hallmarks of a minor crisis.

A humorless smile touched her lips again. Humans had a idiom about crisis meaning the same thing as opportunity. This was an opportunity to turn suspicion into paranoia, paranoia into panic, and panic into stupidity.

Seeding the next step had been simple. Apply the right disinformation to the right target, then see where the lie travels. If it simply doesn't go anywhere, you know that target is secure. If the lie starts to wander around, well then, that was something interesting.

The successful information broker owned exactly nine different residences scattered around Nos Astra, of various levels of quality. There were fallback positions in the event of trouble, always leaving her with caches of emergency equipment, shelter, and a hideout, if needed. Her primary residence was sprawling and luxurious, located in a coveted high-security building with a stunning view. At the opposite end of the spectrum was this address.

On the opposite side of the street, tucked into a utilities access alley, Liara huddled under a small second-story fire escape while weathering the downpour. Worn over her light commando armor was a hooded black raincoat. From its hood, a pitch blackness was cast over her ocean-blue eyes from the nearby streetlight. Silently, leaning against the wet building for what was turning into the third hour beyond midnight, she watched the steps and door across the street.

_14_, read the simple black metal numbers on the strong-looking door with an enhanced security lock. The street, if translated literally to a human, would read High Landing. Here in this importing-exporting industrial area of Nos Astra, there was little of the glamor normally associated with the city, which suited her purpose just fine. There were far fewer of the pervasive security cameras about, also.

Painted tan and set deeply into a concrete wall, the door looked industrial rather then residential, and indeed that was the purpose of the original construction many years ago.

Behind that easily ignored door on an utterly unremarkable street, lay a narrow stairwell lit with a single bulb, leading up to a two-bedroom apartment. It was remarkable only in that it was the only apartment in the entire building, a tacked on addition to a shut-down factory she had purchased through a shell company. Had she entered the apartment this evening, she would be the sole occupant of the massive building.

If her other residences were compromised, she had confided to a trusted confidant and assistant, this was a place she could feel safe. She rarely slept in the same location twice in a row, Liara had quietly explained, although for the next several days she would hole up at 14 High Landing. If and when Shepard arrives, inform him personally and no one else, by any means, she had quietly demanded, underlying the importance of the information.

Liara's reflection on the evening's past events was disrupted by a white hover-van approaching down the street, headlights cutting through the rain. Ducking back into the alley to keep to the darkness, she waited.

The commercial van slowed slightly as it passed her door, then continued a short distance down the street. As it came to a stop, the side door slid open and four individuals exited, even as a fifth stepped out from the driver's seat. With the driver standing watch - largely unnecessary on this quiet and dark street in a rain-shower so late at night, in an industrial area - the other four busied themselves with readying their last-minute equipment.

Two asari, a human, and a salarian readied pistols, assault rifles, and checked their armor. It was hard to be certain in this light and at this distance, but Liara didn't recognize them as being from any of the recognized mercenary groups. The driver made no effort to prepare himself, instead lighting a cigarette and leaning against the van. He wore no armor, opting for casual clothes.

_The lookout. I'll be seeing _you_ shortly._

The four combat personnel nodded to each other, then quickly jogged up the street, approaching her door. Once there, the salarian hacked the door - not without some effort - and the squad rushed in and up the stairs, slamming the door behind them.

* * *

Allen took a fourth drag on his just-lit cigarette, then tossed it away into the downpour while it was still mostly unfinished. Need to stop smoking, he thought - for the several thousandth time of his adult life - as he hitched up his collar against the cold rain. Nervous and jittery about what he was doing this evening, he looked up and down the darkened street, seeing no other movement anywhere.

_I hate this. Stress will give me ulcers._

Walking to the front of his van, he stood with one arm leaning on the front of it, peering at the door the team he had just dropped off had entered.

_Hurry up, assholes. I don't want to be here._

He nearly wet himself when a silent hand grabbed the back of his raincoat, and he felt something puncture it under his right armpit, something that pricked the flesh there. Something hard and ice cold, and _very_ sharp. A knife.

"Are you familiar with the subclaven artery?" asked a female-sounding voice from just behind his rain-spattered hood. He found himself unable to speak - his throat locked in sudden terror - so he quickly shook his head in response.

"The major vessel of the human right arm, it is located right _here_." The cold knife in his armpit wiggled slightly, and he squeaked in pain as it scratched him. He stood up on his toes to get away from the terrifying sensation.

"It feeds your entire right limb, including the two main vessels in your wrist, just one of which seems to be a traditional method of suicide amongst your kind. The artery I'm close to severing is much larger. If you disobey me I shall apply a biotic Stasis on you after I have used the knife, and you can stand here in the rain, completely immobilized while you bleed to death. Now I ask you, do I have your full attention?"

He found his voice just enough to gasp out. "Yes!"

"Walk around the van with me, enter through the side door, and then get into the driver's seat. I will follow you and sit behind you. If you decide to resist, depending on the situation, I will decide between biotics, handgun, or this knife to kill you. Any questions?"

Allen swallowed noisily past the lump in his throat. "No."

"Excellent. Proceed slowly. I do not wish for you to stumble and partially sever your own arm as you fall."

For a perverse moment, he almost thanked the voice behind him for her thoughtfulness. Dismissing the moment of utter madness, he slowly walked around to the far side of the van, through the beams of the headlights, pausing at the door to put his hand on the door.

"I…I'm going to open the door now." Perhaps it was the cold rain beating down on them both, but his teeth started chattering. The knife retreated ever so slightly.

"Go ahead."

Opening the door carefully, he stepped inside, moved to the front and squeezed in between the two front seats, sitting in the driver side. He heard his assailant take the seat directly behind him, with the movement of her own rainsuit sliding over the seats. She had left the side door open, and the sound of the rain pounding down echoed inside the open vehicle.

The hated knife was under his arm again. "Start the vehicle, drive slowly ahead by four buildings, then stop again. What is your name?"

With careful movements, he put his chip into the slot, and pressed the ENGINE START button. "A…Allen." Cautiously, he moved the vehicle forward, counting silently to make sure he moved exactly four buildings, then slowly pulling over to stop.

"You've done well thus far, Allen. You're on your way to surviving this evening. I will ask you some questions. Answer directly and honestly, and I will be pleased. The four individuals you dropped off, do you know them?"

"No."

"Elaborate."

He swallowed, trying to moisten his dry throat. "I…picked them up. I was told to meet them in a restaurant, after hours. The back door was open. I was paid with a simple credit chip and told not to ask questions."

"How did you know to even be there?" The voice was soft, and cultured. In fact, it sounded almost friendly, if not for the situation and the words being used.

"I own this truck. I do deliveries of bulk foods to restaurants. The owner of this place…she offered me extra work if I could keep my mouth shut about it. I…my girl is…she's still looking for work, and…"

"Focus, Allen. These four individuals, they are here to kill the occupant of door number fourteen?"

"I'm…I'm not…sure. They didn't talk much. I think they wanted to capture someone, maybe kill them if that didn't work out." He felt the knife retreat from his flesh, and he risked a glance into the crude rear-facing mirror, seeing part of a blue face shadowed inside the dripping hood. She was currently looking down, and from the faint orange glow that sprang to life that illuminated her chin and mouth, had just activated her omni-tool. There was still a sharp sting in his armpit, where he could tell he'd been scratched by the blade.

"Does accessory to kidnapping or murder mean anything to you, Allen?" she asked mildly, not looking up. "Also, if you're considering that now might be the time to flee, you may be correct. You would be able to take, in my estimation, at least five steps before the gravity well of a biotic Singularity turned you to tightly compressed ball of meat."

Despite the chill of the night, Allen felt perspiration dot his upper lip. "No! I mean…I…understand. Accessory, I mean. But…I didn't know that was the job until we were already on the way. I'm just a driver. I needed the money, my girlfriend is…we're expecting. I…"

"This restaurant you met them at, what is it called?"

"_Sadru_."

"And the owner was there to speak with you and the others?"

"Uh, kind of. The owner spoke with me. This other asari spoke with those other four."

"Does this 'other asari' have a name?"

"I never heard her use a name while talking to the other four. But I've seen her at the restaurant before as a customer, and she's been in the back, like she's involved with the place. Called her Nix-something, and her dress was two different kinds of purple. I…I don't remember, I'm sorry!"

The hooded face in the mirror went still, then came up. He could not see the eyes, but the orange pinpricks of light reflected from the omni-tool looked like points of fire.

The face turned down again. "Back to the topic of accessory. The driver faces the same responsibility as the person who commits the act, Allen. The severity is identical in the eye of the law."

"Oh God. I…why haven't they come back out of that place? You're not there! They'd come back out!"

_Maybe they could distract her. I could get the hell away._

The asari behind him was still face-down in her omni-tool. "From the apartment video feed I have here, they think they have found interesting evidence to gather about me. Have you ever heard of the term 'honeypot', Allen?"

"N…no." _What the hell was she talking about?_

"It's a human idiom for a certain kind of a trap, a law enforcement term for a type of deceptive operation. The honey attracts insects into the trap where they are killed. I've never stayed in that apartment. It is entirely fictitious. I have previous-generation computers installed and running, with encrypted nonsense for data. Stored is expired food, old clothing I no longer need, and fabricated documents that run in circles pointlessly."

"The security on the inside door is meant to delay and annoy rather then actually keep anyone out - I am certain the Salarian tech enjoyed a pleasant experience dealing with that. The apartment is registered to a person who does not exist, and the building belongs to a company that is as substantial as the air you are breathing. I am now deleting all records of both as I speak."

Allen swallowed again. "W…why bother with…?"

"I was involved in the sciences for a long time, and this is little different. Establish a controlled environment. Introduce a stimuli. Observe and wait. That is the nature of this type of warfare, Allen. You cannot simply seek and destroy the enemy, because you cannot know location nor identity. However, if you let them come to you, the question of where and who tends to…"

On the omni-tool behind him, just as her voice paused, he heard her fingertip hit a command with a faint beep.

In the mirror, as if suddenly opening one's eyes to stare into the sun, the world turned brilliant yellow. Millions of falling raindrops captured and reflected the light from what burst forth from the opening that was previously the door of 14. An enormous tongue of hellish, oily flame exploded across the street, propelling the door itself to drill deeply into the opposite building, like a blade fired from a cannon. A split-second later, the thunderous noise rocked the van and set his ears ringing. He barely heard her finish her sentence.

"…answer itself."

"Jesus! Fuck!"

_I'm alone. Just her and me, now. I'm going to die here._

"Calm yourself, Allen. There will be no authorities for several minutes. Drive until I say otherwise." The voice sounded distant, his hearing fuzzy and filled with a white noise of hissing. He felt the knife touch the back of his arm again, not quite inside his coat anymore, but just there so he could feel it.

Pushing down both panic and the bile in the back of his mouth, he did as he was told and the van lifted from the ground to move forward again. The orange fireball of the street and building slowly faded behind them.

"Drive normally. You have no reason to flee the area, as you're not involved, correct? Just be calm." The asari's voice was unnervingly composed, as if discussing the poor weather, merely to pass the time.

"Right. Yes. Right." The driver wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, in agitation.

"Let us speak about you for a moment. You said you have a mate who is looking for work, and with her, you are expecting a child. A person under such pressure can make rash decisions."

Allen nodded, having been regretting certain decisions very strongly for the last ten minutes.

"Pull over here, into that alley. Then turn off the vehicle, and all lights. We will be hitting security cameras soon, and you do not want to be the only vehicle on the road driving away from an explosion."

The man did what he was told, and as the engine whined to a stop, darkness and silence settled around him, replaced only by the muted raindrops falling on the metal shell of the van.

"Do you consider yourself a good man?" the voice behind his ear asked softly.

_Here it comes. I'm sorry, Maggie._

"M…most. Of the time." He closed his eyes.

The sound of rain. Otherwise, there was nothing.

"That is a surprisingly honest answer, Allen. How much were you paid to be the driver?" The whisper was so close to his ear, he could feel her warm breath upon him.

His hand reached out slowly and he pointed to a credit chip sitting in a small nook in the dash. "Two thousand."

"Your mate, what is the field of employment she seeks?"

_What?_

"She…studied to be…a lab technician. Bio-tissues."

"She certainly sounds employable."

"You'd think so…but…she's human, also. Competing with asari for jobs…" His voice trailed off, very much aware that an asari with a knife was just behind him, one who may be sensitive to charges of racial slights.

"Mm." The knife moved from the back of his arm, and he flinched as it moved out in front of his face, held in a black-gloved hand. The blade glistened with water droplets from the rain outside, and the very tip was reddened with a small smear of his blood.

"DNA scan, Allen, if that is your real name. Shortly, I will know everything about you, so I suggest that you live a clean life. Tell your mate to continue her career path, and do not be discouraged. I suspect an element of subtle racism may be at play, common on Ilium. Things may look up for her soon, if I like what I see from her. Favors can be a more powerful currency then credits, and I am owed a great many of them. This would be a trivial matter."

The knife moved forward as the asari leaned ahead, her face coming up to just beside his ear, and she dropped another credit chip next to his own.

"Ten thousand. Take care of your family, and apply yourself to your job. No more little things on the side, do you understand?"

"Yes!"

"Rest here. When morning traffic begins, join it and drive as you normally would. Go to work tomorrow, and every day. If the restaurant owner asks, say the team went inside, there was an explosion, so you panicked and left. You do not know anything else. Keep the lie simple, yes?"

"Yes! I understand."

"I will be watching. Be a good man, Allen."

There was a movement of air, and after a moment, he turned and looked out the open side door of the van.

Only the falling rain could be seen.

She was gone.

* * *

Thirty-three minutes later, Liara T'Soni was crouched on the flat rooftop of the restaurant Sadru, hidden in a shadow beside an air vent, oblivious to the pounding downpour as she bent low over her omni-tool again, shielding it with her hood.

"Greetings, Dr. T'soni," spoke the remote VI in a dispassionate voice.

"Hello Cipher. The restaurant Sadru. Identify owner."

Back at her office, banks of machines calculated trillions of lines of code, passing through electronic tendrils throughout all of Illium. "Processing. Dehya L'Zoh."

"Launch scans for criminal activity, financial irregularities, communications last thirty days involving unusual sums of credits to non-business entities."

"Processing. Positive marks. Probability ninety-three."

"Cross-reference with Nyxeris, finances and communications." The answer was sadly predictable.

"Positive marks."

"Cross both with known Broker agents, last twelve hours only."

"Processing. Positive marks."

_I wish I had been wrong._

"Dr. T'Soni, an extrapolation exists."

"Proceed."

"Dehya L'Zoh has positive markers regarding indirectly exchanged funds with three of the five individuals identified and involved with the recent assault upon Council Spectre Shepard, according to police records I was able to access. Dates and amounts are identical. Direct transfer does not exist, however. Circumstantial, possibly coincidental."

"Of course. Disconnect." Dehya would not live to see the next sunset, Liara decided. Beyond all other things, she may be the last link connecting Allen to tonight's events. As she scanned her dagger and briefly perused the results - Allen Rogowski, in a common-law relationship with Margaret Baribeau - she noted that four, and soon to be five, lives will be taken. Perhaps one could be saved. It may allow her to sleep well enough, when she found the time for it.

As for what she must do to Nyxeris, she held no such hopes.

_Be a good man, Allen._


	3. Into the Cold Black Earth - part 1

_####_

_Shepard,_

_-I am on Illium, yes. When you arrive, visit my office and Nyxeris will see to your welcome, if I am not immediately available._

Liara paused. Yes, In the event this message was intercepted and got back to her, best for her to think all was normal.

_-It will be good to see you, ag..._

Deleted. The asari rubbed her eyes in frustration. The continued reliance on stims over rest was affecting her judgement. Say too much and the evidence of a personal relationship will arise. Bad enough the whole galaxy knew they were former crew-mates in the mission to apprehend Saren.

_-If you are visiting in person, I trust that means you are up and well enough recovered to..._

Deleted. His recent incapacitation did not need to be advertised to whoever could be spying on her. Or him.

_-Be well._

_-Liara_

_####_

Shepard possessed an uncanny sense for danger. Perhaps he'd pick up on the message, if he got to Nyxeris before she did.

The rain had never let up for a single moment in the next two hours until the teasing of dawn, and Liara was cold, tense, and increasingly miserable. Her eyes stung with fatigue, and she blinked them furiously to work away the stiffness, even holding out her hands to collect cold rain water to splash and rub into her face. Finally, she retrieved a slender red case from a pouch on her hip. Opening it and taking out her final stim needle, she jabbed it angrily into her thigh; welcoming the sting.

_Five stims in a row, replacing sleep. Fifty-three hours without it._

Her stomach churned with stress, exhaustion, and hunger all at the same time. She had one more protein bar on her, but felt nauseous at the mere idea of consuming it. _Reaching my end, I need to rest and recover. Sleep is a weapon, Shepard used to say. The soldiers who have more of it can win, all else being equal._

Activating her omni-tool for a moment, shielding it again from the pounding rain, she reviewed Dehya's file, taking note yet again of her official photos, memorizing the facial markings, the set of her eyes. She'd have, perhaps, part of one second to decide on killing, or staying her hand. The criminal asari was rumored to be an above-average biotic and there could be no mistakes.

Closing her eyes, listening to the rain wash over her, she savored the warm tingle that swept through her as the stimulant drug took hold. _Now I'll only be jumpy, twitchy and hollow-feeling rather then being slow, leaden, and hollow-feeling._

The headlights of the skycar playing over her eyelids brought her back to the present, and she snapped open her eyes while keeping the rest of her body still.

_Just as expected. Arriving over an hour before the other employees show up for them to begin prep-work and receiving the produce delivery of the day. Not all criminals sleep in, I see. _Cipher's hacking and investigation of the last month of her extranet and comm usage from this location had told her all she needed to know about her daily habits.

Falling to her stomach next to a puddle still being churned by the downpour, Liara crept forward and peered over the ledge as - who she presumed was - Dehya L'Zoh hurriedly moved from the skycar to the back door of the restaurant, letting herself in with a pass from her omni-tool. Pausing before closing the door behind her, she again waved her omni-tool and the skycar's lights darkened, the engine powering down. _VI piloted. Good. Nobody else to deal with._

Below her the door closed solidly. _Now._

Feeling a burst of adrenaline, Liara pulled herself over the ledge and dropped to the ground noiselessly, decelerating herself with a small pulse of her biotics. Turning, she whipped off her raincoat to reveal her black commando armor. Liara slapped her hand on the door's sensor, and despite the red locked status displayed, it slid open immediately. The information broker had hacked it hours ago, and Dehya had unknowingly 'unlocked' an already open door.

Liara burst into the hall as her vibro-bladed knife appeared in her hand, and she felt it hum to life in her palm as she thumbed the actuator button in the hilt. Before the broker's target had taken her fourth step inside, Liara was upon her.

* * *

Snapping back to consciousness, Liara was first aware of the cold raindrops sharply pelting her face, followed by the chill along her entire back, going from her legs to the back of her crest.

_Outside. Lying in the cold mud. Rain on my face._

Squeezing her eyes closed and gritting her teeth with the effort, Liara rolled to her side, groaning with the sharp pain that blossomed through her left shoulder as she did so.

_Dehya. Biotic Throw put me right out the door. Must have landed on the back of my neck and shoulder. Separated it? Get up. Fight. Do something, fool!_

Wrestling herself to her knees in the puddle she landed in, the asari broker opened her eyes, relieved to see it was still full darkness, at least. Little time may have passed, perhaps just seconds. Struggling to her feet, she wobbled for a moment, then stumbled back to the back door of _Sadru_. Her left arm hung limply, causing her searing pain with each step, and she held it with her right hand, pinning it against her body to minimize movement.

_Sadru's_ back door was wide open, as one of the panels was warped outward and hanging loose in the frame, while the other was on the ground in a mangled, contorted shape.

_Shoulder injury question, answered. If I'd not have had my own shields up she'd have crushed me when I went through it._

She didn't remember going through the door, and her head was starting to buzz with pain, stifling her attempts focus on the missing moment.

What she saw inside made her pause, and lean against the doorway in relief. Dehya was lying flat on her back in the center of the hallway, in a small pool of dark purple blood. The hilt of Liara's knife was protruding from between her breasts, giving obvious indication as to the cause of death.

_She acted quickly, and as powerfully as rumored. Hit me with biotics even as the blade went into her heart._

Liara painfully bent, avoiding touching the pool of cooling blood with her muddy shoe, and retrieved her blade. Dehya's heart had stopped pumping minutes ago, so there was no release of life fluid at all, just the disturbing feel of pulling the knife from a piece of meat. She wiped the bloody weapon on a clean area of the asari matron's fine dress, and then removed the fine necklace the corpse was wearing while cursing the clumsiness of doing so with one hand.

_Finish up. Escape. Need to recover. No mistakes, now. Vulnerable to error._

Proceeding inside the office, scanning as she went for hidden cameras or listening devices, and finding none. Hardly surprising, as it would make no sense to record her own meetings involving criminal activity. Liara ransacked Dehya's office to create the appearance of robbery, and took any small valuables she found.

Finding a small wall-safe, she took the time to crack into it with an expensive - and very illegal - software she had purchased some time ago from one of her salarian technology contacts. It took several precious minutes - the safe was actually of very high quality - before she liberated her victim of what appeared to be in excess of four hundred thousand in credit chips, tucking them into a tiny pack that was snugged against the back of her waist.

_Thank you for funding the war effort with your profits, Dehya, criminal and otherwise._

Moving back outside, she retrieved her raincoat, and quickly gained entrance to the fine Dehya's luxurious skycar - still warm from the restaurant owner's arrival - and slumped in the driver's seat. Liara took a moment to roll her head back, and closed her eyes against her pain and exhaustion.

_Pausing too often. You can do this. Just a little while longer, then you can rest. This is for Thessia. Is it not? I am killing to save lives. No. Not this time. I am killing to save only myself._

The vehicle rose into up into the rainstorm over Nos Astra, and departed. The information broker would ditch the vehicle into a river - something else for the authorities to spend time on as a false lead - and retreat to one of her safe-houses. Liara kept a small trash incinerator in all but the smallest two of them, for the purpose of disposal of evidence. Everything she wore right now counted as such, she cared for none of it. Just tools in the craft of killing.

Liara would leak some evidence of Dehya's criminal activities, and the authorities would - over time - lower the priority of solving the murder with simple practicality, and the realities of dealing with workload. They would write it off as organized crime internal warfare, if they didn't get lazy and dismiss it as a robbery gone wrong. If all else failed, Liara had a fairly significant list of law enforcement officers with something in their history they'd rather not have known. The issue could be buried with the placement of a few anonymous messages.

The investigation would be perfunctory, and the crime would never be solved.

* * *

Seventy-three hours after leaving it, Liara slumped against the door to her luxury apartment. She'd allowed herself four hours of blessed, coma-like sleep while slumped in the driver's seat of a stolen vehicle, while the rain pounded down all around her.

Via an unsavory volus connection Liara had made long ago, that skycar was already being broken up for parts, and would essentially vanish. It had belonged to the now-dead Dehya, a local crime lord that had organized a bounty collection attack Shepard a week ago, on Ilium - almost certainly with the intent of presenting him to the Shadow Broker.

Four hours. After fifty-seven hours of activity, then awake again for an additional seventeen while carefully covering her tracks.

The asari information broker felt she was no longer courting mere death by exhaustion, but complete madness. Every thought and action had to be pushed through a thick wall of confusion and resistance, like trying to swim in viscous, syrupy fluid.

It had taken an ultimate effort to appear somewhat normal to the main security guard of her exclusive building, a burly turian who was notable for his stoicism. Predictably, she had overcompensated and tried to act _too_ normal. The turian had peered at her oddly as she passed by, receiving from her a weak wave and a faked smile.

He'd raised one taloned hand halfway, as if close to returning the gesture before catching himself, and his mandibles twitched as if in annoyance. So very odd.

_What...was I..._

Partially falling before catching herself, she left a broad smear of mud on the cobalt-painted entrance. Resting her forehead against the cool metal, she considered the effort to enter, and what would need to be done once she did.

Disabling security.

Re-setting it.

Dropping her weapons and other equipment carelessly upon the floor in a heap.

Undressing, leaving filthy armor and bits of wet clothing in a trail as she stumbled to her room.

A warm shower that she would have to stay conscious for.

Drying herself.

Walking the enormous distance to her bed.

Falling upon it and accepting the darkness for a very, very long time.

_You...can...do...this. Just. Ten more minutes._

Ripping one of her gloves off with her teeth, the asari - eyes closed, face pressed to the door - blindly slapped the door lock with her bare hand. Activated, she fumbled until her finger found the tiny scanner. It beeped, allowing for the next stage of authentication.

"Pass-phrase for voice authentication."

Speaking required tremendous effort, her mind felt like it was a long distance away from her body, and her mouth tasted like she had been chewing coins.

"Pass-phrase for voice auth..."

"Alchera," she gasped. The hated word. Every time she entered her home, a reminder of why she desired so very badly to feel the Shadow Broker's blood coating her hands. Watch the life leave his eyes. Hear his heartbeat slow, then stop.

He'd desecrated the body of her love. Even now, with years past and him alive again, the bile and furious rage welled up at the thought.

The Broker had forced her down a path that had led to her making a shameful, awful choice that she still questioned every single day. That she had still never fully explained to Shepard. What would he say? Her courage failed her at the mere thought of such a conversation.

_Do not touch him, inatosha n'di, you honorless filth. He is your better of a magnitude beyond your understand._

"Please repeat in normal speaking to..."

"Alchera, _damn you!_" she nearly shouted, her eyes squeezed tight.

The hum of the tiny electrical motors sunk deep in the reinforced walls hummed to life, and she forced herself to lean back from the door just as it slid open.

"Confirmed. Welcome ho..."

An impact struck her lower back, bending her painfully backwards as she was propelled into her own private shelter, hitting the floor and skidding across the expensive, smooth stonework nearly into her kitchen.

The haze vanished, and her thoughts raced.

_The turian. He was nervous. Because he accepted payment to allow someone to wait in the building. To follow me._

Propping herself up on one elbow, Liara gasped in pain as her shoulder reminded her of the injury inflicted by Dehya. She saw an asari form silhouetted in her doorway, striding in after her. Not dressed for combat as she might expect, but casually in a business dress.

"Yes, welcome home, T'Soni. Nice that you could see it, one final time."

* * *

There was simply not enough time to defend herself. Her limbs were leaden, her mind fogged by fatigue, and her head pounded with the need for rest.

Instead, Nyxeris dropped the shoes she carried in one hand, and the small cloth case she carried in the other. Padding forward on bare feet she kicked Liara in the face without hesitation. White light exploded in her eyes as she heard, as much as felt, her nose crunch under the other asari's heel. Flopping limply onto her back, she instinctively rolled away while clutching one hand to her face, tasting sour blood in the back of her mouth.

"Ah, Liara. The Broker has kept you busy, sending small attacks after you; leaving his people open to retaliation rather then securing them. It seems you've finally proved yourself enough of a nuisance that he decided to take care of things. Did you even realize you were being led along? And you look so _exhausted_, dear...I thought you were about to start crying at the front door."

Reaching down, Nyxeris took the hem of her knee-length dress in her hand and hitched it to mid-thigh. Taking a two-step start to build momentum, she viciously buried her foot into Liara's stomach, blasting the air from her lungs. The smaller scientist curled up into a ball and wheezed for a breath that didn't want to come, hot purple blood streaming from where the skin had split on the bridge of her nose, and sputtering from one nostril.

"That was a good one. Without that light armor, I might have broken a few ribs. You look awful, T'Soni. In fact, I think I'm dirtying my feet by kicking you. Did you play in the mud for the last few days, child? This is no way to welcome a guest into your home. Your traitorous pureblood-breeding mother, Benezia, would be ashamed of you if she could see you now."

With a snarl through her gritted teeth, and an obvious surge of effort, Liara pulled herself to her knees. With one hand on the floor for support, her biotics flashed and she raised a fist. Nyxeris, waiting for this, held forward a small device and activated it, making a face of distaste as she did so.

A keening, piercing noise at the edge of perceptible sound washed over Liara, as two glasses on her counter shattered. With an open-mouthed expression of agony, she fell back to the floor, her hands uselessly clasped to the sides of her head.

Shivering with disgust, Nyxeris turned the device off and set it on the counter. Still curled up in a ball on the floor, the excruciating pain backed away just enough to allow Liara to scream, high and breathlessly, rather then be completely paralyzed.

"Oh, _do_ shut up. That thing is directional, but still, that was painful for me. Have a little sympathy. It's a shame this device doesn't work nearly as well on humans, I'd love to see your pet Spectre writhing on the floor like this. Only...I don't think he's your pet anymore, is he? He's only come by once, and he certainly didn't stay long. Did he let you know he'd found better options?"

"_Ka...'saiba...hinwa..._" Liara gasped out with a vicious hiss, as tears of pain and hatred mixed with the blood from her nose to drip on her floor.

"Such lowborn language. Perhaps he left you for a higher form of life then a pureblood T'Soni. While I think of it, this..."

Nyxeris dropped to her knees abruptly, driving her fist so hard into Liara's jaw that her head bounced off the floor.

"Is for your mother! My family lost a fortune invested in Binary Helix." Grabbing the half-limp scientist by the collar of her light armor, she brushed aside her weak attempts to shield her face, and punched her solidly again.

And again.

And a fourth time.

Nyxeris stood and flexed her right hand a few times, then shook it as if pained. Liara, only semi-conscious, rolled slightly back and forth and moaned as Nyxeris stepped over her and rinsed her hands in the sink, talking over her shoulder as she did.

"I ended up with debts because of your damned family. That's how I ended up in the service of the Broker. I lost my career and savings, you little _bitch_. Seventy years in the military. Three hundred and sixty years managing financial assets. Guess who I had the majority of my funds buried in? Almost five hundred years of work, destroyed! You, Shepard, Saren, Benezia...wasted half my _life_. Then, my work for the Broker...required me to be nice to you for over a year. That was the hardest part; acting like I didn't want to cave your skull in every day. Evidently the Broker wanted you _watched_, rather then killed. You were his lure to get Shepard back, don't you know. Then you went and made a nuisance of yourself by actually being _competent_ at your pathetic little grudge."

Putting her hands in the high-speed air-dryer for a moment, she scowled as she looked around the vast, open apartment. "Look at this place. Such wealth you command, while I now have so little. This is only your second-nicest apartment, I think. You have more money invested in the art on your walls then my entire family has remaining. You acted so torn when Benezia's liquid assets were handed to you from her estate, how _precious_. Like you were _too good_ for it. Her own killer, paid in full by her own funds."

Striding past Liara to the front door again - pausing to look at her, making sure she wasn't getting up to put up any resistance as of yet - Nyxeris stepped over her dropped dress shoes and picked up the small case she had dropped. Opening it as she returned, she pulled forth a syringe.

"N...no..." Liara muttered through a split lip, her teeth purpled by blood; peering up at her through the one eye that had not swollen and closed.

"Don't struggle, dear, or I'll stick this in your good eye. Don't worry, it's not lethal. I'd never make it _that_ quick." Grabbing the former archaeologist by the upper arm, she wrenched her over to her side - making Liara squeal as her injured shoulder flared with a fresh spike of pain - and jabbed the needle into a spot the armor left exposed; the seam at her waist where a thin line of her slender midriff could be seen.

"A mild synaptic neurotoxin. If you ever wondered what it's like to be a non-biotic, the next twelve hours or so will be enlightening. But I want you awake, T'Soni, I'd hate to give you a peaceful death."

Nyxeris activated her omni-tool and spoke into it. "Put all the the lifts except number three out of order for the next ten minutes. Three goes into maintenance mode. Bring the car to service lift three and leave it there, and go back to your desk."

Closing the channel, Liara's would-be assistant rose to her feet and placed her hands on her hips, looking around with a critical eye. "Some of these things will fetch a nice price. I see a piece of Shepard's burned-up armor over there. Recovered that from his body, huh? That must have really special sentimental value, in fact, I bet you cried yourself _sick_ when you first got your hands on that. I know a fence that can appraise just about anything, though...a rich batarian would _love_ that for a trophy."

The virtual teen-ager at her feet, by asari standards, growled from the back of her throat and fought her way to one elbow, gasping at the effort. Her blue eyes glowed brightly with fresh hatred.

Nyxeris laughed derisively and simply placed her bare foot on Liara's neck and pushed her over, then knelt with one knee in the small of her back to pin her to the floor.

"Do you even know why I'm here? I was just supposed to confirm when you came back to your place. But this should earn a nice payoff, and move me up in the organization. The Broker will be pleased. I'd say it was just business - excepting the fact I'd have done it for free."

She wrenched both of Liara's arms around to be at her back - causing another muffled scream of pain - and secured her wrists with a locking plastic strap.

"Stand up, T'Soni, it's time to go for a little drive."

* * *

Liara came out of the blackness when her face hit the floor of the skycar. The sound of the door closing, and then the small movement of Nyxeris' weight entering the front, let her know they were about to depart. The edges of her vision went gray as she nearly passed out again, but she shook her head to try to clear it, and sucked in air to try to oxygenate herself into alertness - which merely served to set off a coughing fit from the blood still trickling down her throat from her throbbing nose.

With a groan of effort, she rotated herself - shoulder and ribs screaming in protest - to place herself face-down. At least, now, if she passed out again, she'd not suffocate from the inability to breathe. The skycar vibrated and hummed as lights played over it, followed by darkness - they were leaving the parking area under her building, and were now outside.

Liara coughed again. "Where...?"

Nyxeris snickered. "It matters little to you, trust me. No, _wait_. Actually, you will enjoy this. Do you remember when you engineered the takeover of Thoughtpulse, after discovering they were a Broker-owned company and took actions to crush the stock price?"

Eyes closed, Liara grated out the words, her mouth distorted by bruising and from her cheek pressed into the floor. "Simply...revealed financial...irregularities. Gave...you...a huge bonus. We...celebrated...in my office...with wine."

"That's right. I bet you could not feel my revulsion at you being so pleased with yourself. I wanted to vomit. Regardless, thank you for the credits. I bought myself a little cottage far away from the Nos Astra, _with your money_, one would suppose. We're going there now; I'm going to show it to you. In fact, I added a feature just for you."

Lying on her stomach, Liara shivered. Nyxeris' voice was alternating between detached, amused, and hateful - she sounded as if she was walking the very edge of sanity.

"You see, I dug a hole..."

* * *

For a moment, there was a terrifying sensation of falling. With a panicked intake of breath, Liara's one functional eye snapped open, and for a moment she had no idea where she was. The floor against her face was gritty, hard, and humming the vibration of the engine into her aching and bruised flesh. Her entire body throbbed with a curious mixture of pain and numbness - as if she was feeling terrible discomfort, but merely remembering the sensation from a different time and place.

From the front seat, Nyxeris cursed the bad weather, the side and back of her head only illuminated by the lights of the skycar's controls, and it all came rushing back. Liara closed her eye again and fought back a sob of panic and terror.

It was all real.

Her body was battered and broken. The serum Nyxeris had injected her with - combined with a savage beating followed by being handcuffed and forced to lay still for some time - made her arms and legs feel like they were so very far away and disconnected from her body.

Every breath was an effort, the pain in her ribs punishing her for drawing air.

Every beat of her heart shot a spike into her closed eye, her throbbing nose.

Sleeping would be so.

Much.

Eas...

…

The light.

The warmth.

The strength.

His face.

Above, touching her own. The heat of his body, on hers. Trust. Safety. Excitement. Acceptance.

_Shepard. He had a good life. Until he the day he did not. He had rarely left the town he'd grown up in before it was put to the torch. Every family member, friend, every person he'd ever even met - shot down and burned, or stolen away forever. No weapons, no defenses, no chance. He was a child, also, but old enough to remember that he could do nothing but run. He remembers running, so very clearly. Goddess, I saw it in his mind as if I was living it. It burns him every single day. He saved thousands on Elysium, and fought nearly to his last drop of blood, but for the loss of less then a hundred, he lay in a hospital for six days agonizing on his failure._

_The deep well of shame inside himself, he tries to fill it by helping others. But it is never enough. He cannot fill the hole no matter what he does._

_He will never win. For he remembers running, clearest of all._

_What have I suffered compared to him? Taunts. Harsh words from mother. Judgement. Solitude. I was pathetic to think of these things as hardships._

_But the Goddess, the spirits, the Lord, the homeworlds - they cannot have him, or me. Not today._

_I._

_Will._

_Not._

_Allow it._

Determined to not make a sound, no matter what may come, Liara drew her knees under her while her face still pushed into the floor. Putting her rump into the air, the motion also served to raise her hands above her heart. Draining the blood from her hands may help, every millimeter would count.

After a moment, she wiggled her wrists. She had tensed her fists and arms when Nyxeris had put the cuffs on her, and now - _yes_. There was a slight amount of room, the sharp plastic moved. But not enough to slip off.

Perhaps if it was slippery.

Closing her eye again, the asari scientist put her teeth to her swollen bottom lip - making a vow to herself to not make a sound.

_Pain is nothing. I am nothing._

Her fingernails dug into the flesh of her wrist. Twisting and ripping at the skin. Her teeth gnawed at her bottom lip as she willed herself to continue, and she tasted fresh blood in her mouth even as she felt warmth coat her fingers and drip into the seam of her armor at the small of her back.

With a silent prayer to any gods who may exist, she tried again.

Nothing.

One shoulder merely ached while the other stabbed at her like broken glass, robbing her of any strength and control, and she nearly sobbed in frustration and despair.

"T'soni! Stop kicking around back there, or I'll just kick you out the door and you can fall for a minute before you hit the forest."

Wagging her hands and fingers around, she tried to smear her dripping blood into a small pool on her back, and then rub the entire circumference of the cuffs in it. Tears burning in her eyes, she pulled with everything she had, distantly aware of the skin peeling and one thumb threatening to dislocate.

By the tiniest of amounts, the plastic slipped.


	4. Into the Cold Black Earth - part 2

"_Muah!_"

"Shut up, T'soni. I've been enjoying the quiet."

Disoriented, wrenched forcefully out of unconsciousness, Liara was dragged into a seated position by the hand locked into the collar of her commando armor. The sudden - and forced - change in position made every stiffened joint in her body cry out in protest. Roughly, Nyxeris pulled her forward out into the cold drizzle and darkness, where Liara stumbled as her rubbery legs struggled to support her.

Propelled by a dismissive shove in the back, Liara's knees buckled and - arms still bound behind her - she fell forward helplessly onto her chest, her face hitting a puddle even as her sore ribs exploded in misery at the impact. Her involuntary gasp of pain only managed to suck in water from the shallow puddle she'd landed in, and she coughed and sputtered as she curled up into a protective ball.

_Goddess, help me. My ribs. Back. Pain. Everywhere. I can't..._

"Nice place, don't you think?" Liara's former assistant bent at the waist, and stretched out the stiffness from the long duration in the driver's seat. "Didn't cost me a lot, being so far out of the way. I'd have to walk for almost twenty minutes to chat with my closest neighbour. So really, you can scream all you like. Look at all these trees, they really muffle the noise. At night here, if there's no wind, it's really a different kind of quiet. We're six hours north of Nos Astra, now. Flew all the way into a temperate zone. Aren't the mountains pretty?"

Liara didn't answer, shivering in the cold mud at her feet, her eyes closed and trying to breath shallowly to minimize the pain in her chest. She shivered, trying to block out the the madness contained in the cheerful words, coming from the person who was about to kill her.

"No appreciation for nature, eh? Spent your whole life in libraries and computer labs, reminding yourself how much better you were then the poor kids. Me, I joined the ancillary forces when I was fifty-three."

Reaching down, she put both hands on the straps of Liara's armor, and started dragging her towards the cabin. She grunted as she talked, pulling her along the slippery grass and weeds in jerks.

"Sure as hell...didn't qualify...for commando training. You know why? My biotics are shit. Didn't have a nice education...like you. Learned some stuff...later. Got my three meals...per day and...eventually...took on training...in finance. Figured if...I didn't have any...credits...I could count...someone else's."

The misting rain in the near-total blackness of the night, gave Nyxeris' skin a glistening sheen that reflected the light from the two moons above them. They were behind the cabin now, just past the clearing and into the first of the trees that became a dense wood. With a final pull, Liara was dragged over the roughness of rocks and soil, and not the slippery, rain-soaked grass. In the scant light, Liara turned her head to see a crudely-dug rectangular hole in the ground, next to a common shovel.

Already soaked through with chilled water, Liara shivered violently as he stomach lurched. She had never felt so utterly hated and loathed as at this moment.

"Scared, huh? Good."

With a grunt, Nyxeris seized Liara by the straps of her chest armor with both hands, and pulled her to her feet so their faces were close together.

"That makes it _fun_. I want you to know how I felt when your filthy family took away everything I've ever worked for."

Hanging nearly limply in her arms, Liara fixed her with her one still-functional eye. "Helix...was a...dirty company. You knew. Impossible returns. Broken laws. Got...what you deserv..."

Her words were cut off as Nyxeris furiously slammed her forehead into the smaller scientist's lower face, splitting her already-swollen lip and clicking her teeth together. As her head snapped back from the impact, she sputtered fresh, hot blood from her mouth, and gasped from the pain despite herself.

"SHUT UP! You don't...can't judge me! You're so damned superior! I'll take all your money, and your fine clothes, and your expensive toys...they'll be mine. You can rot in this hole!" Looking down, Nyxeris released one hand from holding up Liara, and reached for the handgun attached to the thin belt at her waist.

Behind Liara, a thin, white plastic strap - dotted with water drops and smeared with dark, crusted purple - softly hit the dirt at her heels.

Nyxeris' fingers closed around the wet handle of the Predator.

Liara gritted her teeth, her bruised mouth twisted into a feral, bloody snarl as her right arm - freed for the first time in hours - clumsily swung up in a tight, arcing punch.

Halfway to its target, her fist exploded in flame-orange that for a brilliant moment, illuminated them both. A flash of blinding light in the darkness of night.

"_Kai!_" Liara cried.

The orange glow at the end of her arm hit Nyxeris in the side of her neck with a _smack_.

Darkness took them again, as did complete silence.

The pistol fell from Nyxeris' fingertips, to land in the wet soil with a thump.

Her left hand rose shakily, and gently rested on top of Laira's closed hand, where it was still pressed against the side of her neck, just behind the line of her jaw. With a hissed exhalation through her teeth that spattered Nyxeris' face with specks of blood and saliva, Liara wrenched her hand free.

The movement dragged from the older asari's neck a glowing orange spike, embedded in the flesh of the top of Liara's right hand. Seconds later, it fizzled and vanished - leaving behind a bloody, ragged puncture that bled freely, dripping from her fingertips.

Nyxeris' eyelids fluttered as she struggled to comprehend what had happened, even as the hot, purple fluid from the core of her body squirted between the fingers clamped at her own neck.

For a moment, the two simply faced each other, silent except for their quickened, harsh breathing. Then, dismissively, Liara put her left hand to the other asari's face and pushed.

Mortally wounded, Nyxeris landed heavily with one arm and part of her torso hanging out over the opening of the hole she had earlier dug for her intended victim. Helplessly, the strength robbed from her limbs, she hung precariously close to sliding in.

The moment of determination and effort passed, Liara swooned with weakness and fell limply to her knees. After a moment, even remaining upright was too much effort, and she fell sprawling to her back.

All was still, aside from her own exhausted gasping - and the quiet scratching as Nyxeris' free hand clawed at the ground, trying to stop herself from sliding into what would have been Liara's grave.

Long before Shepard had returned - before she allowed herself to believe Cerberus could succeed in bringing him back to life - Liara's waking moments had been only misery, guilt, and depression.

She had allowed Cerberus - _Cerberus, Goddess, it sounds utterly insane even now_ - to take her love's remains away.

Feron had been taken. He'd thrown himself at the Shadow Broker's men to buy her time to escape with Shepard's corpse.

Because of her inability to let him rest. To let go. To accept.

She'd condemned the drell to death or torture for the sake of her selfishness and cowardice.

Cerberus was the only choice easier than mourning. _Goddess forgive me, it was easier than acceptance. _The black void of accepting his death, it was _too much_ to consider facing.

For three weeks, she hid herself away in a trash apartment, living under an assumed name. The windows blacked out, she knew only darkness both in her heart and in her surroundings. The Shadow Broker would want his revenge, she knew. Every noise in her run-down building brought her a surge of terror that he may have found her.

After three weeks, she reached out for Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Her mother's money paid for secured office space, security systems, and the hardware that Tali would need to assemble a data center and house her brilliantly written counterintelligence VI, which they dubbed _Cypher_. If she was already the Broker's enemy, she may as well be a worthy one. Tali merely thought she was taking care of Shepard's lover, to honor his memory by helping her start a new life and career. It burned at Liara to have misled her devoted friend.

While Tali was busy with this project, working nearly day and night in secret, Liara had attended to other things. No longer content to rely on her biotics and her scientific knowledge to protect herself, she prepared for a dirty war in the underground of information. Money exchanged with the right freelancers bought her private training with an embittered, retired-by-crippling-injuries commando, who spared neither deadly techniques nor harsh rebuke for lack of attentiveness.

A month later, Tali left to return to the fleet. Behind her, she left a corporation capable of being run by a single person should they be completely focused upon it. Liara was not.

Nyxeris was hired shortly thereafter to assist with low-level day-to-day operations, while Cypher ran the majority of the real work. Liara remotely provided decisions when needed, and was otherwise occupied.

She'd purchased arsenal of weapons, and was educated in their use. Her physical fitness was attended to. Hand-to-hand combat, in her youth a passing dalliance only to please her mother, was seriously seen to. Then, the blade, for which she discovered a natural talent and honed it with pride.

Then, a surgery. A thin, subdermal omni-knife. Tiny, one-use, hard to detect, and expensive. It was never intended to kill another.

She had thought of Feron the entire time.

If the Broker ever captured her alive, it would provide a way out.

A way to end her own life.

And there was another, even darker reason she had turned herself into a killer, but she pushed it from her mind. Irrelevant now, she knew. And he didn't need to ever know. Some things were best forgotten.

Flat on her back in the mud and grass, feeling the light mist on her skin, Liara used the tip of her tongue to reach out and catch a cold drop forming on her bruised and lacerated lips. It was as clean and pure as she knew she would never be again.

There was a wet choking sound, and she heard Nyxeris scratch at the ground, weakly trying to crawl away from the hole she had dug for Liara herself.

Liara closed her eyes and steeled herself for what was to come. There was still one thing left to do.

It was remarkably easy, steeling herself. Something had broken inside her today, and it had been replaced.

With something harder. Colder.

Liara sat up.

Something unfeeling.

Nyxeris was dying. She knew this.

Even the strength to keep her hand against her neck was fading, and the blood pumped out of her with less vigor then before. Her extremities tingled, and they felt so very far away. Still, the instinct to fight for life had not entirely fled her, and she clawed at the dirt with her free hand, trying to move, escape, and somehow live.

There was medi-gel in her skycar. If she could...

A shadow fell over her, cast by one of the two moons orbiting overhead.

Another step, and the silhouette of Liara T'Soni loomed over her. From it, her one good eye flared with an inner light, which stared down at her, unblinking. Slowly, Liara's entire body began growing wisps and tendrils of energy that played over her armor, as the beginnings of her biotic power began to return to her.

Bent, bloodied, partially broken - the young scientist turned information broker suddenly stood over her like a great and terrible predator. Using the shovel she had picked up as a crutch, she leaned down, stripped the omni-tool from Nyxeris' wrist.

Dropping it into the dirt at her feet, she stomped on it three times until it crunched.

"P...please..." Nyxeris heard her own voice whisper, as if on its own accord.

Her answer was Liara's boot planted into the side of her chest, and then she was falling. Into the blackness of a grave that was now hers alone.

Landing awkwardly on her shoulder, she rolled over painfully and panted in panic, both hands on her neck. Above her, in the opening to the relative light of the morning sky, stood Liara, still leaning on her shovel.

Staring down. The eye glowing.

"I figured you out nearly a year ago, Nyxeris. I was not entirely certain. But some of the data, the algorithms, were..._concerning_."

From the scientist's battered mouth, the words were slurred slightly. It pained her to speak.

"Liara..." Nyxeris whispered. The corners of her vision were turning black. She was so tired.

"So I planted data for you. Unique data, only for you. Followed the trails. Over time, patterns. Not evidence. But patterns. Just. Enough."

Using hesitant, jerking motions, as if every movement was paid for in pain, she took the shovel in both hands and shoved it into the pile of dirt next to her, taking up a healthy scoop.

"You were a double-agent for me, Nyxeris. The perfect one. For you did not know that you were one. I fed the Broker falsehoods though you, and used misinformation against him. A good deal of my success, is because of _you_, Nyxeris. Now, then..."

She hefted the shovel a bit higher, standing straight.

"I trusted you, once."

Liara brought the shovel back with a grunt, gaining momentum.

"However..."

From the rain above, in the distance, a stroke of distant lightning. For an instant, Liara's features were illuminated. Her face bore nothing, not even hatred.

Nyxeris tried to scream, but a weak rasp was all that would escape her.

"Your employment with _T'Soni InfoNET_ is terminated, effective immediately."

The wet dirt struck her in the face.


End file.
